If are hoping that people will respond, it might be prudent to include a question, request, or engaging prompt in your post. Otherwise, I'm going to assume you're proud of not having any ideas and simply want to share that fact with the world.
In the event that you would like help with thinking of a Halloween adventure, toss up a few themes, creatures, or encounters that inspire you, and we can start from there.
Ok I want a kinda spooky vibe though not really ghosts I feel zombies and witches would fit what I want better something that's hard with powerful creatures of the night prowling the after the PCs maybe a bit of a halloween theme with pumpkins and the like rather than just spooky stuff
Yes: Zombie, Witches No: Ghost Themes: "Spooky", Chase, Pumpkins, Night
The first thing that comes to mind is a Swamp. Maybe the players have wandered too deep in search of treasure and stumbled into a powerful Witch's Bog.
Thick, oily water, with unpredictable hazards just beneath the surface, and a dark canopy full of hungry vermin and twisting gnarled branches. If the players move too quickly, they might stumble into a deep pit, cross the path of a submerged alligator, or have their leg grabbed by a bloated corpse.
The Witch's influence causes the local vegetation to release hallucinogenic vapors that cause the players to see things that aren't really there.
If the players stay in place for too long, the mist grows thick and they can hear ominous cackling that gets closer every round.
Basically, a "Mist of Barovia"-style Survival game where the players need to escape the swamp.
They can find clues, like a trail through the swamp, markers, or stilt houses with creepy NPCs who offer them clues in exchange for unnatural items or services (Like trading a root bag (Advantage to Wisdom saves) in exchange for an eye (Disadvantage on perception checks)).
Or, you could do a Sleepy Hallow-style supernatural murder mystery.
Maybe an old woman came through town recently selling homemade pumpkin pies, and lots of people bought and ate them because they smelled great and they were decorated nice and they were super delicious. Problem is, the sun is now setting and the full moon is coming out and lots of the townsfolk who ate those pies are now turning into monsters - maybe werewolves, maybe trolls, maybe pumpkin-headed zombies looking to carve Jack O Lantern faces into the other townsfolk's heads as revenge.
So the party has to deal with killing these monsters, and protecting the townsfolk from them, and they have to find some way of either removing the curse and curing the affected people, or maybe it's just a Purge-style one shot and they just have to survive until sunrise.
Oh... and candy corn. That's some spooky stuff!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
I've run a few one-shots published by 'The Arcane Library', which my group really enjoyed. As the DM I found them quite easy to run, with nice maps. Each adventure has about five encounters in it, which was more than enough for a four to five hour session, and I found the combat encounters to be very well balanced. Thematically they're very much in the 'gothic horror' genre with very dark themes, so if you're looking for 'Hocus Pocus' hi-jinks these might not be for you.
Yes: Zombie, Witches No: Ghost Themes: "Spooky", Chase, Pumpkins, Night
The first thing that comes to mind is a Swamp. Maybe the players have wandered too deep in search of treasure and stumbled into a powerful Witch's Bog.
Thick, oily water, with unpredictable hazards just beneath the surface, and a dark canopy full of hungry vermin and twisting gnarled branches. If the players move too quickly, they might stumble into a deep pit, cross the path of a submerged alligator, or have their leg grabbed by a bloated corpse.
The Witch's influence causes the local vegetation to release hallucinogenic vapors that cause the players to see things that aren't really there.
If the players stay in place for too long, the mist grows thick and they can hear ominous cackling that gets closer every round.
Basically, a "Mist of Barovia"-style Survival game where the players need to escape the swamp.
They can find clues, like a trail through the swamp, markers, or stilt houses with creepy NPCs who offer them clues in exchange for unnatural items or services (Like trading a root bag (Advantage to Wisdom saves) in exchange for an eye (Disadvantage on perception checks)).
Or, you could do a Sleepy Hallow-style supernatural murder mystery.
Yeah I think I'll do it though maybe more of a kill the witch then escape
Here's one I put together and never got to use (because my characters ignored the hag plot and went looking for werewolves instead).
Village got tough and refused to make their annual sacrifice to the hag coven in the local swamp. So the hag's slip in and kidnap a family. Players are asked to rescue them.
Sneaking into the swamp they find a couple of kids tied up, crying against a large tree. There are some creepy huts and a big cauldron nearby.
It turns out its an illusion and the kids are really hags (or support witches depending on how many enemies you want) and the tree is a hangman's tree.
Encounter was intended to be grueling with my level 9 party walking into a trap set by a hag coven and having to fight/claw/brawl their way out of it. If they flee they are pursued through a dark swamp by all sorts of terrors. If they manage to kill a hag and the coven splits up, they can explore the horrors of the hags little workshop....
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
PC - Ethel - Human - Lvl 4 Necromancer - Undying Dragons * Serge Marshblade - Human - Lvl 5 Eldritch Knight - Hoard of the Dragon Queen
DM -(Homebrew) Heroes of Bardstown *Red Dead Annihilation: ToA *Where the Cold Winds Blow : DoIP * Covetous, Dragonish Thoughts: HotDQ * Red Wine, Black Rose: CoS * Greyhawk: Tides of War
Spooky is something unsettling, like having a crazy old woman curse you, and you simultaneously trip into a puddle of mud.
Scary is the belief of a real threat, like finding a pool of warm blood when you know a killer is on the loose.
Good horror depends on what you're specifically looking for, but "jump scares" are widely considered "bad horror". Some of the best "horror" films never have jump scares at all.
A good horror story should be personal and relatable. Find the things that scare your players in real life and, carefully, dig into that. For example,
The movie "Mother!" is a particularly good example of psychological horror that demonstrates "loss of control". "The Babadook" is another notable psychological horror film that explores mental illness.
"Cube" is an interesting Sci-fi Horror series where people are trapped in an elaborate machine and attempt to escape through a variety of deadly hazards. This leads to fear of physical harm, as staying put will lead to starvation, but looking for the exit could lead to something far worse.
My recommendation would be to watch a couple of these movies, as well as those from the author Stephen King, such as The Shining, The Mist, 1408, etc...
Warning:Some people have traumas that need to be respected. If you plan to make a dark horror adventure, please talk to your players to determine their comfort level with the content you have planned.
The subject on how to effectively run a horror adventure is probably far too complicated to sum up in a mere few paragraphs, but I can offer a few tips I found worked.
Firstly, If you want your players to feel scared you basically require them completely on board and willing to allow themselves to have a frightening experience. It will be really hard, if not impossible, to scare them unless they're completely up for that specific ride, otherwise they'll resist it as much as possible by keeping is as comical as they can. If you can get your group keen for what you're aiming to do however, the rest will be a little easier.
As far as what you'll actually need to do differently, you'll almost certainly need to change the way you deliver the adventure, and let them feel more like they're the ones in control of interpreting what they see. For example, don't tell them 'you see a blood streaked trail leading into the basement door' when you could tell them 'a grubby smear across the floor leads to a closed door', and let them investigate it. When they do investigate, absolutely don't tell them it's blood - you tell them 'its sticky', or anything else that will help them reach the right conclusion. Once they get used to that, they'll start imagining horrors where you never expected, and the ones you've actually planned for will be much bigger than they are.
I got my group to run in terror from a bunch of ghouls (that they would have easily killed in a few rounds of combat) by never calling them 'ghouls'. I describing them slowly, taking my time, by their qualities.. "hunched over humanoid figures, sifting through piles of bones, discarding those which looked too old to hold any marrow. One stands up, and is shockingly tall - well over 7 foot. Its body both muscular, and atrophied, with grey rubbery looking skin. They haven't yet noticed you, but one closest to you stops and sniffs the air suddenly, looking in your direction - makes a stealth check.."
I have no idea what to do for the plot like I wanted to do a witches bog but I'm unsure what to do plotwise except they fight spoopy monsters then the witch the end and I don't think that makes for a good scare
All I've got is I want some Firbolg tribe that uses disguise self to look like monsters to survive (An allusion to the Irish who wore masks to scare away monsters in a tradition that eventually birthed halloween)
try parts of encounters that are keyed to a card in a deck (use as many cards as you wish), in a tarokka deck style, like curse of strahd, and then shuffle the deck, draw a card and go from there
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Rogue Shadow, the DM (and occasional) PC with schemes of inventive thinking
Honestly, if you're really feeling like you're not prepped for the game at this stage I'd either cancel it and play a board game instead, or I'd be looking at a one shot module someone else has written already. There is plenty on 'drive thru rpg', or by looking at the link I offered in this thread at the top. A decent homebrew session takes time to write and plan for, and I wouldn't be starting to do that the day beforehand.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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I wanna run a spooky one shot around halloween but don't have any ideas
If are hoping that people will respond, it might be prudent to include a question, request, or engaging prompt in your post. Otherwise, I'm going to assume you're proud of not having any ideas and simply want to share that fact with the world.
In the event that you would like help with thinking of a Halloween adventure, toss up a few themes, creatures, or encounters that inspire you, and we can start from there.
Ok I want a kinda spooky vibe though not really ghosts I feel zombies and witches would fit what I want better something that's hard with powerful creatures of the night prowling the after the PCs maybe a bit of a halloween theme with pumpkins and the like rather than just spooky stuff
Yes: Zombie, Witches
No: Ghost
Themes: "Spooky", Chase, Pumpkins, Night
The first thing that comes to mind is a Swamp. Maybe the players have wandered too deep in search of treasure and stumbled into a powerful Witch's Bog.
Thick, oily water, with unpredictable hazards just beneath the surface, and a dark canopy full of hungry vermin and twisting gnarled branches. If the players move too quickly, they might stumble into a deep pit, cross the path of a submerged alligator, or have their leg grabbed by a bloated corpse.
The Witch's influence causes the local vegetation to release hallucinogenic vapors that cause the players to see things that aren't really there.
If the players stay in place for too long, the mist grows thick and they can hear ominous cackling that gets closer every round.
Basically, a "Mist of Barovia"-style Survival game where the players need to escape the swamp.
They can find clues, like a trail through the swamp, markers, or stilt houses with creepy NPCs who offer them clues in exchange for unnatural items or services (Like trading a root bag (Advantage to Wisdom saves) in exchange for an eye (Disadvantage on perception checks)).
Or, you could do a Sleepy Hallow-style supernatural murder mystery.
Maybe an old woman came through town recently selling homemade pumpkin pies, and lots of people bought and ate them because they smelled great and they were decorated nice and they were super delicious. Problem is, the sun is now setting and the full moon is coming out and lots of the townsfolk who ate those pies are now turning into monsters - maybe werewolves, maybe trolls, maybe pumpkin-headed zombies looking to carve Jack O Lantern faces into the other townsfolk's heads as revenge.
So the party has to deal with killing these monsters, and protecting the townsfolk from them, and they have to find some way of either removing the curse and curing the affected people, or maybe it's just a Purge-style one shot and they just have to survive until sunrise.
Oh... and candy corn. That's some spooky stuff!
Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
Anzio Faro. Lvl 5 Prot. Aasimar Light Cleric.
I've run a few one-shots published by 'The Arcane Library', which my group really enjoyed. As the DM I found them quite easy to run, with nice maps. Each adventure has about five encounters in it, which was more than enough for a four to five hour session, and I found the combat encounters to be very well balanced. Thematically they're very much in the 'gothic horror' genre with very dark themes, so if you're looking for 'Hocus Pocus' hi-jinks these might not be for you.
Yeah I think I'll do it though maybe more of a kill the witch then escape
Here's one I put together and never got to use (because my characters ignored the hag plot and went looking for werewolves instead).
Village got tough and refused to make their annual sacrifice to the hag coven in the local swamp. So the hag's slip in and kidnap a family. Players are asked to rescue them.
Sneaking into the swamp they find a couple of kids tied up, crying against a large tree. There are some creepy huts and a big cauldron nearby.
It turns out its an illusion and the kids are really hags (or support witches depending on how many enemies you want) and the tree is a hangman's tree.
Encounter was intended to be grueling with my level 9 party walking into a trap set by a hag coven and having to fight/claw/brawl their way out of it. If they flee they are pursued through a dark swamp by all sorts of terrors. If they manage to kill a hag and the coven splits up, they can explore the horrors of the hags little workshop....
PC - Ethel - Human - Lvl 4 Necromancer - Undying Dragons * Serge Marshblade - Human - Lvl 5 Eldritch Knight - Hoard of the Dragon Queen
DM - (Homebrew) Heroes of Bardstown * Red Dead Annihilation: ToA * Where the Cold Winds Blow : DoIP * Covetous, Dragonish Thoughts: HotDQ * Red Wine, Black Rose: CoS * Greyhawk: Tides of War
Thanks for the idea but I probably won't use it but thanks anyway
So I have a general plotline for the one-shot though I have one question I need the answer too
What makes it spooky what makes it scary. Is it just spooky ghoulies, jumpscares? Or is there something more to making good horror?
Spooky: eerie, suggestive of the supernatural
Scary: Causing, or able to cause fright.
Spooky is something unsettling, like having a crazy old woman curse you, and you simultaneously trip into a puddle of mud.
Scary is the belief of a real threat, like finding a pool of warm blood when you know a killer is on the loose.
Good horror depends on what you're specifically looking for, but "jump scares" are widely considered "bad horror". Some of the best "horror" films never have jump scares at all.
A good horror story should be personal and relatable. Find the things that scare your players in real life and, carefully, dig into that. For example,
The movie "Mother!" is a particularly good example of psychological horror that demonstrates "loss of control".
"The Babadook" is another notable psychological horror film that explores mental illness.
"Cube" is an interesting Sci-fi Horror series where people are trapped in an elaborate machine and attempt to escape through a variety of deadly hazards. This leads to fear of physical harm, as staying put will lead to starvation, but looking for the exit could lead to something far worse.
My recommendation would be to watch a couple of these movies, as well as those from the author Stephen King, such as The Shining, The Mist, 1408, etc...
The subject on how to effectively run a horror adventure is probably far too complicated to sum up in a mere few paragraphs, but I can offer a few tips I found worked.
Firstly, If you want your players to feel scared you basically require them completely on board and willing to allow themselves to have a frightening experience. It will be really hard, if not impossible, to scare them unless they're completely up for that specific ride, otherwise they'll resist it as much as possible by keeping is as comical as they can. If you can get your group keen for what you're aiming to do however, the rest will be a little easier.
As far as what you'll actually need to do differently, you'll almost certainly need to change the way you deliver the adventure, and let them feel more like they're the ones in control of interpreting what they see. For example, don't tell them 'you see a blood streaked trail leading into the basement door' when you could tell them 'a grubby smear across the floor leads to a closed door', and let them investigate it. When they do investigate, absolutely don't tell them it's blood - you tell them 'its sticky', or anything else that will help them reach the right conclusion. Once they get used to that, they'll start imagining horrors where you never expected, and the ones you've actually planned for will be much bigger than they are.
I got my group to run in terror from a bunch of ghouls (that they would have easily killed in a few rounds of combat) by never calling them 'ghouls'. I describing them slowly, taking my time, by their qualities.. "hunched over humanoid figures, sifting through piles of bones, discarding those which looked too old to hold any marrow. One stands up, and is shockingly tall - well over 7 foot. Its body both muscular, and atrophied, with grey rubbery looking skin. They haven't yet noticed you, but one closest to you stops and sniffs the air suddenly, looking in your direction - makes a stealth check.."
I have run into another problem
I have no idea what to do for the plot like I wanted to do a witches bog but I'm unsure what to do plotwise except they fight spoopy monsters then the witch the end and I don't think that makes for a good scare
All I've got is I want some Firbolg tribe that uses disguise self to look like monsters to survive (An allusion to the Irish who wore masks to scare away monsters in a tradition that eventually birthed halloween)
Anyone?
Hi there --
Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but I think this post is a good idea.
Check out: https://slyflourish.com/running_ravenloft.html.
The author describes how you might run a Ravenloft campaign in a single evening.
Might be worth considering.
-J
try parts of encounters that are keyed to a card in a deck (use as many cards as you wish), in a tarokka deck style, like curse of strahd, and then shuffle the deck, draw a card and go from there
Rogue Shadow, the DM (and occasional) PC with schemes of inventive thinking
I don't own Curse of Strahd so don't know what the tarokka deck is or how to use something similar to it
Oh god it’s tomorrow and I still have 0 plot oh god
I’m dead
Honestly, if you're really feeling like you're not prepped for the game at this stage I'd either cancel it and play a board game instead, or I'd be looking at a one shot module someone else has written already. There is plenty on 'drive thru rpg', or by looking at the link I offered in this thread at the top. A decent homebrew session takes time to write and plan for, and I wouldn't be starting to do that the day beforehand.